The issue of making the ‘know your customer’ (KYC) norms more strict was taken up at the last meeting of a sub-committee of the Financial Stability Development Council

With the government facing heat on the issue of black money, the Finance Ministry has begun an exercise to make identification norms uniform and more stringent for capital market players like FIIs (foreign institutional investors), mutual funds and brokerage customers.

In addition, market regulator SEBI is working on further tightening of its surveillance mechanism, an official in the Finance Ministry said.

The issue of making the ‘know your customer’ (KYC) norms more strict was taken up at the last meeting of a sub-committee of the Financial Stability Development Council (FSDC), headed by Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao.

“We are working on a common KYC. It will be more strong and stringent,” the official said. At present, different market players follow different KYC norms.

As for the SEBI surveillance rules, he said, “We have enough safeguards to check inflow of illicit and unaccounted money into the capital market. The only possibility of such flows into the market is through FII and high net worth individuals. We will make the surveillance stricter.”

The moves are part of the government’s fight against the black money menace amid intense pressure from civil society, Opposition parties and the Supreme Court.

The RBI and SEBI have been tightening KYC norms from time-to-time. Furthermore, banks also required to update the information of their clients.

Between January, 2010, and January, 2011, SEBI banned over 30 entities for engaging in circular trading for periods ranging from two months to two years.

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COMMENTS

Sudhakar Kulkarni

5 years ago

KYC is must however it should be done once only. presently KYC compliance is insisted separately by DP, Mutual Fund, Broker, Bank, Insurance,mobile service provider and so on, ideally there should one centralized agency where one has to do the compliance once only and only the given number should be quoted whenever needed, the respective can verify the same online. This will automatically bring uniformity in the compliance and will avoid repetition.Once the UID project is completed there wont be need for separate KYC compliance however UID project make take quite long time hence till such time centralized KYC facility is most.

K B Patil

5 years ago

KYC is a clear example of the govt. going overboard. All that KYC does is harass genuine citizens. For instance, my daughter has just turned 18. But she doesnt have a driving licence or a voter card. Her passport has expired recently. So, till I get these documents done, she cant even open a bank account. Jai ho, Bharat Sarkar!!

Nagesh KiniFCA

5 years ago

Does the 'K' in the KYC stand for 'know' or 'kick' or 'kill' Your Customer?
While dummy bank accounts and demat accounts with fake IDs go on with impunity, genuine individuals, senior citizens are harassed.
The Maharashtra State Co-op. Bank when given the PAN card for personal identity and Voters Card for residence proof insisted on a Light Bill. As long as the address is not changed even when the Voters Card was issued long time back shouldn't make a difference to the requirement of 'latest proof of residence'. I refused to provide anything further than the Election Commission Voter ID. Is this not a case of Kicking Your Customer?

The investment objective of the plan under the scheme is to seek to generate regular returns by investing in a portfolio of fixed income securities/debt instruments maturing on or before the maturity of the plans under the scheme. The tenor of the plan is two years.

The new issue closes on 30 June 2011. The minimum investment amount is Rs5,000.